Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu, or also known as "The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi" is a delightful take of one girl's ambition and hyper personality in directing films as the "Super Director" of the SOS Brigade, a club on school campus.

The first episode is hilarious in its cheesyness as the whole episode is one of Haruhi's films and you don't acutually find out until after that film is finished. The OP for Haruhi's film is hilariously bad and the ED to the episode is small (fullsize in episode 2) but is really memorable; production values here were really high quality, and I ended up rewatching this a few times.

In all, this is something DEFINATELY you need to follow if you're looking for that special series of the year.

This looks like it could be alot of fun. I'll be adding this to my list of anime to keep an eye on. Hopefully its picked up in America soon, then we can all petition Madman to pick it up._________________"I can't take his money, I can't print my own money, I have to work for my money. Why don't I just lay down and die." -Homer Simpson

Hmm. First two says "Someone with a lot of imagination working from first-rate source material".

Key piece of innovation is the use of the narrator; normally it's "show, not tell", but showing takes longer than telling. The show has a breakneck pace, and to keep it up [there's a lot of exposition], the narrator has about half the lines, possibly more. This will probably drop as the exposition gets done, but not to anywhere near normal levels; I suspect that this is a stylistic quirk from the original novels.

No minuses so far, but it might tire if they can't keep up the pace, or if it turns into a harem show.

...the narrator has about half the lines, possibly more. This will probably drop as the exposition gets done, but not to anywhere near normal levels; I suspect that this is a stylistic quirk from the original novels.

The novels are written first-person from Kyon's point of view, so yes.

Nargun wrote:

...or if it turns into a harem show.

I don't think this is terribly likely. That said, Haruhi herself did hold up a magazine with Shuffle on the cover when talking about why the club needed Mikuru..._________________Funya | Opinionated Anime Reviews

...the narrator has about half the lines, possibly more. This will probably drop as the exposition gets done, but not to anywhere near normal levels; I suspect that this is a stylistic quirk from the original novels.

The novels are written first-person from Kyon's point of view, so yes.

I don't think this is terribly likely. That said, Haruhi herself did hold up a magazine with Shuffle on the cover when talking about why the club needed Mikuru...

I didn't think so either; the OP had 2m, 3f, and those aren't typical harem numbers. Based on what I've seen, though, it's not impossible [less than 10%?]. But yes. It covers all the <s>fetishes</s>stereotypes; hence my concern.

Though, it's got a good chance of turning into a sort of magical-girlfriend show; it could do that and remain good. [nothing to do with relative merits of harem vs mgf; it's just that combining the intrusive first-person narrator with a harem setup can't help but be icky]._________________Zettai Unmei Mokushiroku

You and me both. In fact, the Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi novels are now only slightly lower priority to me than the Crest/Banner of the Stars novels.

Nargun wrote:

Though, it's got a good chance of turning into a sort of magical-girlfriend show; it could do that and remain good.

A possibility, though if it does it seems to me that a Kyon/Haruhi pairing isn't actually the most likely. I've seen a couple of official pictures that suggest I'm right, but it's just as likely that it's some more abnormality that Haruhi is responsible for. I guess we'll see._________________Funya | Opinionated Anime Reviews

The series' challenge is whether or not it can keep the main character interesting throughout._________________XBL: Tamaaya | PSN: Stormo | Steam/GameCenter: StorminNorman | Stormo Plays Gamessave your tears for the day when our pain is far behind
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His nuts are pretty good nuts, I have to admit._________________XBL: Tamaaya | PSN: Stormo | Steam/GameCenter: StorminNorman | Stormo Plays Gamessave your tears for the day when our pain is far behind
fast and free follow me we are soldiers stand or die

I have just finished what little of the first novel is (fan) translated into English so far, and it seems the anime is a pretty accurate transition from the source material --- only minor changes, for the most part. The only major difference so far is...

that in the novel, Suzumiya's `mysterious transfer student', the Esper Koizumi, arrives before Nagato reveals that she is a `humanoid interface'.

Hech, if the SOS Dan is there "To find aliens, time travellers, and espers, and befriend them!", this is going to be a good series!

Even if they already have an alien, a time traveler and an esper, leading me to wonder what Suzumiya will have left to do,

Frankly, I cannot wait to find out what significance Kyon is to Suzumiya and the SOS Dan _________________My AniDB Page

Frankly, I cannot wait to find out what significance Kyon is to Suzumiya and the SOS Dan

Haruhi's personal slave, I think.

Nagato states that DITE is concerned about Kyon's presence. Mikuru suggests that she is observing his presence in SOS Dan (and it seems likely she knows him from the future), whilst Koizumi's Esper organisation seems to be concerned about how he will effect Suzumiya.

Bigger spoiler:
Asakura tries to kill Kyon, so as to cause Suzumiya to open the Lockdown Dimension.

Therefore,
he is obviously a lot more than her slave: there is something going on. He seems to be the only normal human in the group, so it will have to be something fairly normal.

My prediction:
Suzumiya falls in love with Kyon, which could cause an emotional unbalace, which then in turn causes her to open the Lockdown Dimension once more. DITE want this to happen, but as Nagato becomes more human, she does not want this to happen, and in fact falls for Kyon herself. The timetravelers already do not want Suzumiya causing more disruption, and Mikuru will possibly fall for Kyon. The Espers to not want the Shinjin released, therefore want to do anything they can to keep Suzumiya `normal' (for her), so Koizumi will try to move in between Kyon and Suzumiya.

If only I knew more kanji, I would get what has been written of the novels so-far so I could read further ahead: this series seems so darn good! #3 on my list of `Japanese novels I want to read' after the Boogiepop and Seikai serials.

EDIT:
More Haruhi-ism news,,,

* It seems SuzuHaru has already surpassed Fate/stay night on 2ch: there has been more discussion on three episodes of this series than 16 episodes of the already-fan-favourite!

* A lot of rumours are circulating that it is a 14 episode series, but the official website seems to suggest it will be 27 or 15498 episodes. My money is on 27._________________My AniDB Page

Having only watched the 1st ep so far, it's pretty clever, and I really like the animation and character design, but having done short films before, the episode was in general incredibly painful to watch, what with the horrible camera work, bad editing and flat acting. I know it's intentional, but it doesn't stop it from being jarring. _________________"My body is an unstoppable... weapon!" - El Blaze

I think they just did it to be funny. Every episode, excepting the first, has been the title of the first book, and an episode number; this episode had the title of the third book. The events in it are not from the first novel (as far as I have read), so it definitely jumped well ahead, and from the preview it is obvious they are returning to where they left off in the first novel. I would say they jumped ahead for the same reason they made that episode 0: because it is wierd as, and kind of funny (if you know the source material at all).

I cannot wait to see the battle between Nagato and Asakura animated: it sounds so darn cool in the manga!

I love this series. The books are the ones ones where I've done and obtained the raws and then sat there with a Kanji dictionary and struggled my way through them.

I've so far covered Books 1-4 which is what the Anime is covering anyway.. The chronological jumping is perfect, because it keeps things nice and wacky, but it also splits up the ammount of plot thrown at you from the word go. As Book 1 is really, really heavy in terms of the plot.

Although I can't wait for the Nagato and Asakura battle. CLASH OF THE SQL STATEMENTS.

My favourite character has to be Kyon. He's just so damn normal in the face of weirdness.

I'd like to set aside everyone's fears. This is not a Harem show. There is only one pairing and it's Kyon/Haruhi_________________- TheHeadSage
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So... What's with the Chronological jumping. Seems rather pointless if you ask me.

Means you can do a rather graceful reveal of the mysteries; it'd be impossible in a chronological show. Here is the whack situation; here is what happens. Not as interesting as mixing them all together, see.

If you're telling your own story you can reveal the mysteries synchronously with advancing the events [this is what most anime does], but Suzumiya is an adaption._________________Zettai Unmei Mokushiroku

I was just reading a bit of the novel, and it seems most of the "mysteries" are revealed very early, and the subsequent volumes are just the random day to day stuff. Although I'm not sure how they filled 8 Novels (so far) with just random events so something probably happens. _________________Wai-Con - Perth's Anime Convention

Although I'm not sure how they filled 8 Novels (so far) with just random events so something probably happens.

When the club consists of a pseudo-god, an alien, an esper, a time traveller and what appears to be a token normal guy, there's a hell of a lot of potential for interesting random stuff. Easily 8 short novels worth._________________Funya | Opinionated Anime Reviews

I was just reading a bit of the novel, and it seems most of the "mysteries" are revealed very early, and the subsequent volumes are just the random day to day stuff. Although I'm not sure how they filled 8 Novels (so far) with just random events so something probably happens.

I think the anachronistic aproach is a good one. The series looks like it is going to take the first three novels for the first 14 episodes, and as far as I have read/heard the final chapter of volume one is the most dramatic. As such, it would be the perfect way to end the season, but if they took a chronistic aproach it would come in at around episode six or seven. This way it can be episodes 13/14 _________________My AniDB Page

*slow thrusts*_________________A statue of Franky $10 000. A photo of Franky $100. To be able to meet me in person...priceless. Their are alot of things you can't buy in life. For everything else there's shop lifting.

It has declined somewhat --- Kyoto Animation have pushed the anachronisim too far, and it has turned off a lot of fans. The individual episodes are still better than most things of recent years, but the series as a whole has been hurt greatly for this._________________My AniDB Page

I just watched episode 7, and I have to ask, is my fanboyism weak for finding Suzumiya Haruhi increasingly less interesting?

I'm feeling exactly the same way about the show. It just doesn't seem to have enough jokes to qualify as a comedy, and the episodes don't seem eventful enough for it to hold its own as a drama. The first episode probably skewed my expectations quite a bit, though, since I thought the rest of the series would follow suit and be consistently hilarious as well.

The constant jumping around in time also reduces my 'care factor'. I know enough about the show's premise now, and all the jumping around now seems redundant in terms of maintaining any mystery about what happened in the episodes we haven't seen yet.

Yuki and Itsuki have special powers. Haruhi can destroy the world if she gets bored. We get it already.

I am finding it not as good as well.While the whole time jumps and all fine, now they are just starting to become a little jarring. I also find i am starting to hate Haruhi (the character) don't ask me why, i just am.

Possible massive spoiler:One thing keeping me to this show is the fact i read Kyon is the real god. Which is awesome, because Kyon is awesome.